TO THE READER.


I have been asked to consent that an edition of my poems should
be published at Dessau in Germany, solely for circulation on the
continent of Europe. To this request I have the more readily yielded,
inasmuch as the reputation enjoyed by the gentleman under whose
inspection the volume will pass through the press, assures me that the
edition will be faithfully and minutely accurate.

_New York_, November 2, 1853.

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.






CONTENTS.


POEMS

The Ages°
Thanatopsis
The Yellow Violet
Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood